On October 18, you didn’t have to be in Kourou, Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg to see a rocket take off. In total anonymity, the Gruyère Space Program (GSP) team, made up of students from the renowned École Polytechnique de Lausanne, launched their Colibri rocket.
Nothing to do here with SpaceX monsters like Starship. The rocket has only one engine, is two meters high, and will only fly 100 meters above the ground. Despite everything, the mission is historic. On the flight plan, the small group of students notes “Hop”.
A first in Europe
Concretely, this test flight serves to verify that the rocket can take off, and rest in the same place, in a controlled environment. This mission is therefore crucial to make it possible, in the more or less distant future, to build reusable rockets.
In Europe, no company has yet succeeded in carrying out such a mission. The next known attempt is that of ArianeGroup, with its demonstrator Thémis. He should carry out a “hop” flight at the beginning of 2025. But it was this October 18, from the small Swiss shooting range of Payerne, that a group of students grilled the politeness of one of the most influential companies in Europe.
The Gruyère Space Program therefore makes history as the first company capable of flying a demonstrator before gently placing it back on the ground. The feat was filmed and the video is available (below). It clearly demonstrates the flight in its entirety but also the very limited means that were used to achieve such a feat.
A hard blow for Europe?
The announcement of the success of this “hop” flight from a field in the middle of Switzerland must not have pleased many people on the ArianeGroup side. The sprawling company thought it had made sufficient efforts to overtake other space start-ups, which are developing their engines or making their first flight, but now a group of students from nowhere is pulling the rug out from under them. .
A real admission of failure on the part of ArianeGroup which must nevertheless be qualified. The two projects certainly have the same purpose, but they do not use the same means at all and do not have the same objectives. The Themis demonstrator will certainly be the second to carry out a “Hop” flight in Europe, but this mission will be much more impressive.
Two incomparable projects
30 meters high and weighing 3.5 tonnes at takeoff, the ArianeGroup rocket, built in collaboration with CNES, is part of an even larger program, called ArianeNext. The latter should materialize around 2035 with the first flights of the eponymous rocket. It will then replace Ariane 6.
Like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, ArianeNext will be made up of two stages, the first of which will be reusable. The composition of the two rockets will be very similar, each with 9 engines on the first stage, and a second stage with a single engine, of which the Themis demonstrator will be a distant ancestor.
